Solar photovoltaic arrays are commonly used to power spacecraft. Spacecraft needing high power generation typically use solar array wings that fold or roll-up for launch (because of the constraints of available volume within the launch vehicle), then unfold or unroll in space to present a large solar collection area as-needed to intercept sufficient sunlight to generate the required power. A common approach is to mount the solar cells onto rigid panels, accordion-fold the panels for stowage, and subsequently deploy them in space using hinges between the panels and a supplied deployment force. The common approach has limitations in how compactly the arrays can be packaged, because of the inherent volume and inflexibility of the rigid panels that are used as mounting substrates for the photovoltaic assemblies.
To overcome the packaging limitations of rigid panels, reduce mass, and reduce packaged volume, a Solar Cell Blanket is often used. A Solar Cell Blanket may comprise a thin, flexible assembly of solar cells, coverglass, interconnects, terminal strips, and insulating film that may be unsupported, instead of mounted on thick rigid panel structures. These thin flexible membranes are normally supplemented with a separate deployable super-structure or scaffold that provides the means to deploy the folded or rolled-up solar array into its final deployed configuration and to provide the structural rigidity to hold the deployed array, since the flexible membrane is not a rigid structure. The deployed super-structure is typically attached to an orientation device on a spacecraft so as to allow the solar array to be pointed towards the sun. The super-structure also allows the array to withstand the structural loads that may be placed on the deployed array during spacecraft operations, including loads from accelerations that occur during the spacecraft's operating life, including orbital and orientation maneuvers.
Prior methods to provide the super-structure for a flexible membrane deployable solar array typically use umbrella-like, or oriental-fan-like structures to deploy and maintain the structure of a circular solar array, or one or two deployable booms to deploy a rolled or folded rectangular array. The solar arrays found on the Space Station and on the Hubble telescope are examples of rectangular arrays that use a single deployable boom or a pair of deployable booms, respectively, to deploy a flexible solar array and provide deployed structural rigidity. Such flexible membrane solar arrays with discrete and separate super-structures are limited in the shielding provided to the backside of the solar array after deployment, and by the complexity of deploying such an array with tensioning interfaces between the deployable boom and the non-structural solar array blanket. Accordingly, there has long been a need for an improved system that overcomes these and other limitations.